The present invention relates to metering cooling air in a gas turbine engine, and in particular, to the use of a ring to meter cooling air and retain components in a gas turbine engine.
In general, gas turbine engines combust a mixture of compressed air and fuel to produce hot combustion gases. The combustion gases may flow through one or more turbine stages to generate power for a load and/or compressor. The combination of hot gases and high pressures can cause stress and wear of components in the turbine. To reduce the stress and wear, cooling air flows through parts of the turbine, such as the interturbine area between the turbine disks. Between the turbine disks, high pressure of the cooling air may need to be maintained in order to provide increased cooling capabilities. To maintain a high pressure, the cooling air can be metered. Further, each turbine disk may include a coverplate adjacent to and connected to a side of a respective turbine disk. While various devices can be used to connect the coverplates to the turbine disk, limitations in the space within the interturbine area makes metering of the cooling air and retention of the coverplate adjacent to the turbine disk difficult.